locating elusive network printer

[markuskidd]

I'm trying to add a new PC to an existing small office setup that uses a networked Lexmark printer. Everything has gone fine so far -- Windows 2000 did a fine job of autodetecting proxy settings for the internet, and I can see in Network Neighborhood all of the other computers in the office workgroup.

The problem is that I can't seem to locate the printer. I haven't worked with networked printers much in the past -- usually just shared ones -- but I've navigated up and down a couple of levels of the network heirarchy in the add printer wizard and can't seem to find the ah heck I've tried to peek at the printer properties on one of the PCs that has access to it, but the location field is grayed out and blank. This may be the result of my being unable to log in as an administrator on any of these (apparently no one can remember the admin password <sigh>). Any tips on how to find it?

 

[Jeff7]

Make sure the printer itself is shared, and that everyone who needs access has permission to do so (security tab).

Sometimes too, the wizard can't autolocate a printer - my mom's PC has a laser printer hooked to it, shared, permissions set, etc, but other computers can't always find it automatically. I have to manually enter the printer name - \\ComputerName\\PrinterName - then it sees it.

 

[saxophonoia]

Yes as Jeff said, I have also had to manually enter it after I searched on the network for the correct name. I never had too much luck with network printers and the add printer wizard.

 

[markuskidd]

I may not have explained this clearly... the printer isn't shared through a PC, but rather attached directly to the router via an ethernet interface built into the printer. I'm not seeing any printer name as such when I try to navigate through the network.

edit: removed silly typo

 

[Barrak]

Many of those you cant just browse to. Some times they come with software that needs to be installed, other times you have to make a custom port during the printer selection. And you will most likely need to know the IP address as well. Is it already installed on other computers? Look at printer properties there for what you might need.

 

[Gunbuster]

Add printers ----> local ---> uncheck auto detect -----> Create\custom port -----> enter IP

 

[markuskidd]

As far as the IP and printer properties in general goes, I have now gotten ahold of everyone who works in this office except one guy who's at a conference in Budapest, and no one knows anything about the Administrator password. Somehow.

 

[samgau]

You can do a portscan of the local network for port 9100 and the printer should show up.... then you can just add the printer using that ip address, if you are using xp, then add printer, local port (uncheck the detect automatically), select TCP/IP port, then typw in the IP address you have found using the portscan... then just go from there...
Good luck